iPhone 3G's baseband chip revealed? All signs point to June!

[modit]

EDIT: Engadget just also posted that the "iPhone 3G's baseband chip revealed"?
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/08/i...chip-revealed/

Link to Zibri's blog and what he found inside the code of the latest beta today on April 8th
http://www.ziphone.org/

The quotation from his blog:

"Well this was found inside the latest beta.
If that's not enough for you to understand,
I'll clarify it:
There is a new iPhone coming *very soon*.
The new iPhone will have Infineon's SGOLD3 (PMB8878)
chip in it's baseband.
Google can maybe help you to get more details.
Stay tuned"
Namaste,
Zibri

Which refers to this PDF which as the specs on the new chip
http://www.infineon.com/dgdl/PMB8878...136d6407dc003c

To quote the linked data sheet:

"S-GOLD3H based platforms enable handsets to provide consumer electronic quality such as camera support of up to 5 MPixel as well as video telephony, streaming, recording and playback with up to 30 frames per second and a resolution of up to 320 x 480 pixels (HVGA) in MPEG4, H.264 or Real video formats and advanced audio codecs, like enhanced AAC+.

THE OPTIMIZED S-GOLD3H architecture makes it possible for the users to run several applications simultaneously; e.g. surf the internet, download emails or data to a SD-card with HSDPA category 8 (7.2 Mbit/s) while listening to MP3 music over a stereo Bluetooth headset."

Sounds like an iPhone to me.

In other newa today, Rogers announced that its gonna roll out Canada's next generation wireless network in Halifax and Moncton to become the first cities in the Western Hemisphere to commercially offer 7.2 Mbps wireless services, making mobile download speeds the fastest in the country and in the top 5% worldwide. Expected to expand soon.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/a.../08/c3210.html

Better sell before the masses find out.

[theLimit]

That's one helluva nice chip. I especially like the 5 megapixel camera support/video recording/video telephony part.

[MyJelleo]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

too good to be true?

[zephead]

Ooh 7.2Mbps HSDPA... Very nice.

Gah, I wish it would just come out already!!

*dies of anticipation*

[anmoldagreat]

looks like engadget's post has been taken down...

this may be good.

[modit]

Engadget article is still going (I fixed the link.)

Anyway...It looks like we can see $499 if they throw in 32gb with it.

Increased cost is possible with the increased specs.

As Apple knows, people did shell out for $599 at the U.S. launch so it's not out of the question people in Canada and other places (hopefully) that were not graced by the iPhone would do the same.

[G4R2]

The most interesting characteristic of this chip aside from 3G is the support for a 5 megapixel camera. The under utilization of the camera on the iPhone has been disappointing and an improved camera with appropriate support should be a no brainer for Apple. 5 megapixels is the sweet spot for consumer camera's and with gigabytes of storage as well as integration with both iPhoto and iMovie it could make the iPhone not only a contender in the cell phone market but also a credible digital camera, something no cell phone has been able to achieve.

[bstpierre]

Originally Posted by anmoldagreat

looks like engadget's post has been taken down...

this may be good.

No, the link is wrong. The article is still there.

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/0...chip-revealed/

[guruji]

i read the details of this chip; based on that, in ver.2 we will get:

bluetooth stereo headphones.
improved camera, 5mp???
video recording
& better video playback (HD)
better/more_eff/fast multitasking
more resolution on screen
and min. capacity: 16GB

& of course
faster net access (384Kbps mobile)

black phone will 'be' little bigger then v1, but wont look so due to color.

[anmoldagreat]

yeh i just noticed
but still: this may be good.

and the fact that it has 5 megapixel camera wont make it much of a contender in the cell market. sure some ppl are lazy enough that they want to have gigs and gigs of pictures because the sd hc cards of today only go to 8 or maybe 16gbs? and a comparable camera to the iphone even with 5mp would cost less than a 100. lots of cell phones have cameras with 5mp and they still suck.

the idea of a cell phone being a contender in the camera market is still farrr away. but for snap shots why not. i see the idea of a cheap digital camera dying soon because of improved cell phone cams.

[G4R2]

Originally Posted by anmoldagreat

yeh i just noticed
but still: this may be good.

and the fact that it has 5 megapixel camera wont make it much of a contender in the cell market. sure some ppl are lazy enough that they want to have gigs and gigs of pictures because the sd hc cards of today only go to 8 or maybe 16gbs? and a comparable camera to the iphone even with 5mp would cost less than a 100. lots of cell phones have cameras with 5mp and they still suck.

the idea of a cell phone being a contender in the camera market is still farrr away. but for snap shots why not. i see the idea of a cheap digital camera dying soon because of improved cell phone cams.

There are two obstacles that have prevented cell phones from being decent replacement cameras. First, the pixel density of the CCD has been a limiting factor. 5mp is the perfect size for most uses.

And the second obstacle has been transferring pictures to a computer easily. Apple has gone a long way to addressing this through the integration with iPhoto and Web albums.

An iPhone with a 5mp camera and good integration with iPhoto (and possibly iMovie) would create a situation where many iPhone owners simply won't bother buying a good digital camera simply because a decently executed camera on the iPhone would be more than enough for their need.

[extraextra]

It's on Gizmodo too: http://gizmodo.com/377590/3g-iphones...ing-chip-found

The new phone can't come fast enough!

[guruji]

lets say,

i just want to record 30 sec.to 1 min clips on my iphone ver.1. to send it to friends for fun. decent quality is suffc.

can i do it wiht iphone ver.1 ? WITHOUT jailbreak? i read somewhere the current camera and its chip does not support video recording.

?

[extraextra]

Originally Posted by guruji

lets say,

i just want to record 30 sec.to 1 min clips on my iphone ver.1. to send it to friends for fun. decent quality is suffc.

can i do it wiht iphone ver.1 ? WITHOUT jailbreak? i read somewhere the current camera and its chip does not support video recording.

?

Someone was able to create a program that records video using the current iPhone camera. The last I heard about it was here, I don't know if the project continued and if it's available. You would probably have to jailbreak to use it, but the current phone does support video recording, even though Apple has not enabled it.

Please use Google or the MacRumors search function, many of your questions can be found easily through a search.

[basesloaded190]

Sounds great and all, but how does this chip point at any way that the iphone could be any greater than 16gb. single 32gb chips are waaaay to expensive and if im correct the iphone only has one slot for the chip unlike the ipod touch. Unless they make the phone a bit larger i think 16gb might be standard for a bit.

[nickspohn]

Meh i was hoping for GPS to be built in the chip.

[thechidz]

available end of May

[arn]

can anyone recreate this finding?

arn

[darkblu]

Originally Posted by modit

Link to Zibri's blog and what he found inside the code of the latest beta today on April 8th
http://www.ziphone.org/

The quotation from his blog:

"Well this was found inside the latest beta.
If that's not enough for you to understand,
I'll clarify it:
There is a new iPhone coming *very soon*.
The new iPhone will have Infineon's SGOLD3 (PMB8878)
chip in it's baseband.
Google can maybe help you to get more details.
Stay tuned"
Namaste,
Zibri

Which refers to this PDF which as the specs on the new chip
http://www.infineon.com/dgdl/PMB8878...136d6407dc003c

To quote the linked data sheet:

"S-GOLD3H based platforms enable handsets to provide consumer electronic quality such as camera support of up to 5 MPixel as well as video telephony, streaming, recording and playback with up to 30 frames per second and a resolution of up to 320 x 480 pixels (HVGA) in MPEG4, H.264 or Real video formats and advanced audio codecs, like enhanced AAC+.

THE OPTIMIZED S-GOLD3H architecture makes it possible for the users to run several applications simultaneously; e.g. surf the internet, download emails or data to a SD-card with HSDPA category 8 (7.2 Mbit/s) while listening to MP3 music over a stereo Bluetooth headset."

Sounds like an iPhone to me.

In other newa today, Rogers announced that its gonna roll out Canada's next generation wireless network in Halifax and Moncton to become the first cities in the Western Hemisphere to commercially offer 7.2 Mbps wireless services, making mobile download speeds the fastest in the country and in the top 5% worldwide. Expected to expand soon.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/a.../08/c3210.html

Better sell before the masses find out.

that does not make sense.

1. S-GOLD 3H is not just a baseband processor - it's an application + baseband processor. that means either (a) apple will use only the baseband part, wasting the rest (on a handheld? - i don't think so) or (b) the original samsung S5L8900 goes out. together with the 3d functionality (infineon's chip has only 2d). that means all those 3d games that are being written for the current iphone/ipod touch will not work on the "new" one. do you really believe apple would cut that cord?

2. the current iphone already has an s-gold baseband chip, so a 3G iphone will most likely have a 'next-gen' s-gold, but that does not mean it will be this exact part number as implied in the rumor.

ed: on a second note, it appears the current s-gold 2 (and 3H judging by that brochure) does allow interfacing to an external video engine over MMIC-IF, so possibly 3H can still be used in its role of a video driver (one of its major features) while preserving the MBX functionality in the current actual application processor.

[TedB]

Originally Posted by arn

can anyone recreate this finding?

arn

I don't have the knowledge to, but ziphone has posted this screenshot, which I assume is where they found it in the code.

http://i27.tinypic.com/15o759x.png

[kdarling]

Originally Posted by guruji

i read the details of this chip; based on that, in ver.2 we will get:

bluetooth stereo headphones.
improved camera, 5mp???
video recording
& better video playback (HD)
better/more_eff/fast multitasking
more resolution on screen
and min. capacity: 16GB

The main difference (other than 3G) between this chip and the original, is the higher camera pixel count. Bluetooth stereo is still up to Apple to implement, as is video recording, multitasking, and memory size. Also, not more resolution: the iPhone is already HVGA (320x480).

Originally Posted by darkblu

that does not make sense.

1. S-GOLD 3H is not just a broadband processor - it's an application + broadband processor.

The current chip sheet says the same thing. These are basically quickie ads for us engineers. Don't try to read too much into them. As today, the chip will be used mostly / only for cellular comms.

[darkblu]

Originally Posted by kdarling

The current chip sheet says the same thing. These are basically quickie ads for us engineers. Don't try to read too much into them. As today, the chip will be used mostly / only for cellular comms.

yeah. i was reading the current s-gold brochure when i realized that the s-gold series display driver fuction can still be utilized in the iphone setup thanks to the interfacing to external video engines.

[traderx1]

I think the most interesting part about the capabilities of this chip is the "video telephony". Just the thought of it makes me giggle. Imagine talking over 3G with video...hell video iChat on a mobile phone.

Sounds to good to be true, so it probably is. Plus it would require a front end camera on the iphone.

oh well wishful thinking...

[waterskier2007]

Originally Posted by guruji

i read the details of this chip; based on that, in ver.2 we will get:

bluetooth stereo headphones.
improved camera, 5mp???
video recording
& better video playback (HD)
better/more_eff/fast multitasking
more resolution on screen
and min. capacity: 16GB

& of course
faster net access (384Kbps mobile)

black phone will 'be' little bigger then v1, but wont look so due to color.

is that what we WILL get, or is it just what the card is capable of?

edit - yeah it doesnt mean we get that stuff. "Advantages over its predecessor include higher resolution camera support (5 megapixels instead of 2), a 2x speed MMC / SD interface and DVB-H module support, but that doesn't necessarily mean any of those specs will end up in the ensuing iPhone 3G"

[m477h3w]

Originally Posted by traderx1

I think the most interesting part about the capabilities of this chip is the "video telephony". Just the thought of it makes me giggle. Imagine talking over 3G with video...hell video iChat on a mobile phone.

Sounds to good to be true, so it probably is. Plus it would require a front end camera on the iphone.

oh well wishful thinking...

I had this feature on my Sony Ericsson back in 2006! Mind you I only knew three other people with the feature on their phones, but we had great fun video chatting. The iPhone really should have this feature, I mean, isn't it supposed to be five years ahead of anything else?!?! This feature is common place on mobiles now, in the UK at least.